Discoverability of African Journals by Google Scholar and Inclusion in Scopus
Patrick Amboka, Julius Kirimi Sindi, Marylene Wamukoya, Nosa Orobaton, Alphonsus Neba, Marta Vicente-Crespo, Evelyn Gitau

TL;DR
This study examines how African journals are discovered by Google Scholar and included in Scopus, finding that being listed on the ISSN portal significantly improves their visibility.
Contribution
The study identifies specific factors influencing the discoverability and inclusion of African journals in major academic platforms.
Findings
Most African journals are neither discovered by Google Scholar nor included in Scopus.
Listing on the ISSN portal significantly increases the odds of journal discoverability and inclusion.
DOAJ listing with COPE membership reduces the odds of inclusion in Google Scholar and Scopus.
Abstract
There has been steady progress and advancement of research in Africa. However, African researchers face numerous challenges among them, limited international recognition. This is due to the low discoverability and inclusion of their research outputs by indexers and databases. A lot of initiatives have attempted to address the challenge, however, there is a need for support to enhance the discoverability and inclusion of research outputs from Africa. We conducted a desk review of 1,116 journals hosted on the Sabinet journal repository and the African Journal Online (AJOL) platform. The factors that were considered to influence journals’ discoverability and inclusion include (i) the journals’ Open Access (OA) status, (ii) OA journals’ listing in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), (iii) the journals’ presence on the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) portal, (iv) the…
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Taxonomy
Topicsscientometrics and bibliometrics research · Web visibility and informetrics · Publishing and Scholarly Communication
